re.:Avery Brooks' acting style

I've come across a few critical and disparaging remarks about it. Why?
To my mind he's a superb actor. Certainly his style is theatrical - which isn't surprising, given that like a lot of the actors who end up playing main parts in Star Trek, he's classically trained. But the same applies to Patrick Stewart - watch Picard giving one of his famous speeches, and that's pure stage acting right there. He could be in a Shakespeare performance. Yet I've never heard him being criticized for it.
As far as I'm concerned, the theatrical style fits characters like Sisko and Picard to a nicety, because they're written to be larger than life. A bit of grand declamation never comes amiss there I feel.

Really Brooks gives his best performance when he's playing an angry/upset role. He often does fall flat when he's just delivering the daily dialogue and you can't have him being angry ALL the time without him becoming a parody.

Really Brooks gives his best performance when he's playing an angry/upset role. He often does fall flat when he's just delivering the daily dialogue and you can't have him being angry ALL the time without him becoming a parody.

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Eh I just found the delivery of some of his lines in the first season incredibly flat disinterested. After Season 1, he seemed to have more interest in putting some weight in acting Sisko out beyond just a paycheque.

My least favorite thing is how in early season one he goes, "ah.. hee HEE HEE" as a kind of filler laugh. And also he walks down stairs very oddly, absolutely rigid from the hips up bu this hips down are moving like a marionette.

I liked Brooks' performance as Sisko a lot. I think any kind of unevenness had more to do with the way the character was written at times, but I think generally Brooks played Sisko as a thoughtful character who could explode if pushed too far.

I always felt he just wasn't...engaged...in first couple of seasons. Like, why the frak am I doing this? (other than a paycheck). Hence the slight monotone performances. But once he gets into it (around end S3, S4) and loosens up, he's a joy to watch, 99 per cent of time. Great cadences. Though he still does strike the odd bum note, and his Hannibal Lecter routine is just seriously creepy (and not in a good way; just makes me giggle).

I think it's more I got used to his strange delivery than that he materially changed it. I have to say his singing in S7 was cringe-makingly awful. Whoever thought that was a good idea should be shot at dawn.